Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
Yesterday we, the faculty of the University of Tennessee (and this includes the Instapundit,) received the following from our President, Dr. Joseph dePietro (emphasis mine:) On July 1, a new state law takes effect that allows Tennessee’s public colleges and universities’ full-time faculty and staff, who have handgun-carry permits, to carry handguns on campus. I …
Continue reading "Don't Pack Heat When You're Up for Tenure"
It's that time of year again, when most people who graduate from anything in the U.S. get their diplomas in large, pompous ceremonies. Since it is as doubtful that I will ever experience another graduation ceremony of my own let alone speak at one, this is a poor substitute. Hopefully it will enlighten you about …
Continue reading "Advice to Graduates: You May End Up Building Their Coffin"
First: congratulations are in order to my Texas A&M classmate Ray Rothrock, who won this year a Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Association of Former Students. He majored in a good but highly unpopular subject--nuclear engineering--and then turned around and did very well. Although I didn't name him at the time, it's now or never: …
Continue reading "The Aggie Who Knew How to Get Ahead With a Professor"
Recently one of my academic colleagues posted this piece on her fb page about how students should properly email their professors. One of the recommendations is as follows: Dear [1] Professor [2] Last-Name [3],... Right off the bat, here’s where you can establish that you view your relationship with your professor as a professional one. …
Today is Nowruz, the spring equinox festival of the Iranians. To my Iranian friends, who have meant so much, hope you've had a good festival season (it runs about two weeks back in the old country.) Last November I ran a piece about the Persian origin of the term "King of Kings," which most Christians …
Continue reading "Happy Nowruz to the People of the "King of Kings""
First, the "I told you so": I have been dealing with the Sunni-Shi'a divide since 2005, now everyone knows how important it is. Now for something different: this, from Andrew Wheatcroft's The Ottomans: Deep in the heart of Arabia, the desert warriors of the Wahabi sect, fanatical in hatred for the wickedness of the world, …
Continue reading "The Ottoman Way of Dealing with the House of Saud"
It seems that some things never go away, and the running battle over whether Christians and Muslims worship the same God is one of those. The day I picked to take on this subject is deliberate: it's the feast of St. John the Evangelist, which is also one of the great holidays of Masonry. As …
Continue reading "The Silly, Masonic Debate on Whether We Worship the Same God"
It happened in Paris: Just a day after her death, family and acquaintances gave extraordinary accounts of a young woman with a 'bad reputation' who was known for her love of alcohol and cigarettes rather than devotion to Islam. Her brother Youssouf Ait Boulahcen said that she had had no interest in religion, never read …
Boomers whose brains have not been completely fried by the mind-altering substances (and that number is small) will remember the game show To Tell the Truth. In it three contestants were lined up, all were supposed to be a single person but (usually) only one was. The panel, by quizzing the contestants, were supposed to …
We're coming upon Halloween, that time of year when things get scary. (I'll throw in the fact that Martin Luther posted the 95 Theses and started the Reformation on Halloween, something that Bossuet could appreciate.) In any case "ghost stories" make their way to the surface. In Cleveland, TN, that means "Tall Betsy," a story …
Continue reading "It's Time for Cleveland to Lose "Tall Betsy""
Positive Infinity 